Lord of the Rings Online Observations

I’ve downloaded Lord of the Rings online [Hubby and I did in fact a few weeks back] and I started playing a Captain [named Askevar] but absolutely can’t stand the character. Add to that, hubby isn’t all that intrigued or interested and to be honest, we’re both more focused on wow goals. However, my sister-in-law started playing and enjoys it. So when she comes by the house on Tuesdays and Thursdays at her break between classes, we usually sit down and play a bit. Here are my observations so far:

1. I feel like a total noob in this game. I don’t know the customs or how interactions are typically done. I don’t know what questions are fine to ask and which make me look like a total moron. I will say the Advice and OOC channels are better than WoW’s trade in the sense that you actually can get valid replies, but there’s a lot of WoW bashing that goes on. I don’t really see the point in sitting on one MMO to bash another.

2. I’m having to relearn to play. It was more frustrating for my husband who’s used to the keybindings etc of his wow toons to try and relearn them [our characters made it to level 6… that’s it]. His perspective is that he’s going to relearn to play in Cataclysm, why fight with another system till he’s done with his Pre-Cata list. I sorta agree, but on the other hand, the key bindings and quests aren’t all that difficult to deal with on LotRO for me… I do keep hitting the [B] button to try and open my bag :P.

3. I like the fact that quest objectives are character specific. Meaning, that the plant I need to pick six of is there, even if someone runs up before/after me. There’s a lot less ninjaing and such mainly because you can’t. Also, whoever hits a mob first is who it belongs to. Mobs are tapped and done.

4. Professions are a royal pain in the butt. I went the gathering [explorer I believe] route. You select a vocation, it consists of three professions to be leveled. You become proficient in the first level to gain access to the second level. You master the first level to master the second etc and so forth. I haven’t gone far with these because money is a precious commodity still… so I have to pick and choose where to spend it… plus the SiL and I usually quest.

5. It feels more solo-ish than WoW does. But we’re also not in a Kinship [aka Guild].

6. Riding is a privilege to those who pay… and I’d have to spend about 5 bucks to buy the coins to purchase the riding skill, so for now, I’m doing without and for now I can. They say when I hit level 20-30, it’ll become an issue. SiL and I are currently level 13. If we in fact do reach that point, it’s something we could definitely look at.

7. One possible benefit in the Catalysm shake up months where WoW will be down alot: Lotro has maintenance on Tuesdays also but from 8-9am. I could theoretically play over there a bit more.

8. Guild = Kinship; Group = Fellowship. Kinships require at least 8 members minimally or the kinship is deleted.

9. I haven’t experienced housing yet… though you supposedly can purchase one at level 15… I seriously doubt I’ll be able to afford it. It sounds neat but meh not all that interesting.

10. My SiL is a Loremaster, which is kind of a mage/priest hybrid. They deal damage ranged but they have melee attacks, can have a companion and have a few healing spells and CC spells. I’m currently playing a Champion which is basically a dual wielding dps class… reminds me a bit of a cross between a fury warrior and a dw frost dk. I initially tried a Captain – which is totally a warrior with shouts and all but I can’t stand the character now. I like the minstrel [bard type healer/dps] as well, but she’s saved to run with hubby’s Guardian [tank] if he ever logs on again 😛

8 thoughts on “Lord of the Rings Online Observations”

Let me know if you want company. I played LoTRO way back at release for a few months. I wonder if my old account still has it’s toons. My main was a minstrel. Late 20’s i think was the highest toon i got.

Wanted to give some feedback, hopefully setting some of the expectations right.

* wow player since beta
* lotro subscriber for about 1 year when it was first released, have 1 level 50 minstrel (healer), raided in the first lotro raid instance then quit, resumed playing LOTRO again now that it has gone F2P – also re-learning as well as playing a different class (guardian – tank) this time around.

1. Wow bashing… comes mainly from new F2P players that as far as I’m concerned, actually really likes WOW, but don’t want to pay or play it for some reason – may be they just don’t like the stupid /trade, but decides to take it with them to LOTRO.

If you take a step back, LOTRO is one of the most WOW-like MMO out there that you can get. When we first played LOTRO after WOW Classic, the thought that this was cloning what Blizzard was doing in WOW was extremely apparent. This was 2 years before WAR was released.

2. I would recommend if you are playing WOW and LOTRO at the same time, then rebind all your keys in LOTRO to match WOW. Just do it, then don’t think about this anymore.
Press CTRL-\ to re-organize the interface to your liking.

There are no LUA addons for LOTRO yet. So you don’t have to worry about those.

3.

4. The profession is “cool” when you create a critical item. You can only crit a recipe when you are proficient, and have higher chance when you’ve fully mastered that tier (requires a heap more materials).

Combine it with a good crafting tool, crafting lore (scrolls from scholar profession), and bonus ingredients, you can boost your critical chance up to 70+%

Craft critting works really well for end goal gear, but also works really well when you crit components. 1 tin ore crit = 3 tin bars crit

While in general I thought LOTRO’s crafting required a serious grinding of resources, I think the crit ability makes the profession more fun, and it was always nice to be able to make special gear for kins.

You get to name your created gear if you get higher than cyan colour (epic).

5. It feels solo if you don’t party (fellowship), in a fellowship, the burglar class can trigger fellowship maneuver that enables the entire party to chain a pattern for attack bonus.

I don’t feel the fellowship mechanics are as tight as WOW’s, but it could just be that I’m far used to WOW than LOTRO

6. You will need to unlock riding, if you are F2P, skip the 200 silver mount and go for the 500 silver one. If you are playing a gathering profession, and sell all your materials (especially tin or bronze) on the Auction House, you should have enough money.

7. F2P can’t create kinship, I think. But nothing stops you joining a good kinship. Make sure you select one that has been around since before F2P, as they will have the good people that really know the game inside out, and have the high levels and crafters available to help you.

Most of them know that F2P has granted the game new live and are actively recruiting “good” people. So ask around and I think you’ll be able to find something you like.

8. Kinship has a kinship house, allowing Kins to heart-travel back to an area. Given the difficulties around fast travelling, this can be a good boon.

9. Housing is available to F2P, but given the gold and upkeep required, you will at least have to unlock the gold cap… Not recommended unless you want to really play seriously.

If you want to see what a house look like, join a large active kinship – and go see their kin house.

10.

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A few things I’ve found since I’ve returned to LOTRO:

11. Check out skirmishes if you are out of content – F2P has access to Tuckerborough and Gandonmon. These are available at level 20, and are fun, scalable repeatable content that you can solo, duo, party (3-6), or raid (12), gives you tokens that can get you nice little gear
These can get repetitive after a while though, so don’t burn yourself out.

12. LOTRO has a serious grinding curve. I feel they started by following WOW classic with the reputations -> access to new gear -> beat new boss, but while WOW moved away and simplified a lot, I feel LOTRO kept on going with the whole reputation idea and have LOTS of content, but almost all of it requires some serious reputation grind.

Just be prepared, mentally.

13. I would LOVE to hear your thoughts after you visited the Old Forest, with dread. And the creepy trees.

Fear and atmosphere, is one area in which LOTRO really out-shines WOW. Hope you get to see it with your husband, it’s never the same when you go back a second time, you can’t get that initial frightened feeling.

Wow! Thanks for the response! A couple things – I’ve joined a couple of fellowships I saw adverting but they fell apart due to not enough members. Should I just ask nice players I bump into or ask in OOC/Advice if anyone is recruiting?

My Champion is a gatherer but my loremaster is a farmer. I did a little with it after my SIL left and it looks neat. Feeds right into the cooking profession.

I didn’t think f2p could do skirmishes, but I’ll have to check that out when I get up there. How long do they typically take?

I’m excited about checking it out more lol. Just have a lot to do in WoW and RL atm

My understanding is the F2P player’s best bet is to order the Moria expansion. It’s about $8 on Amazon. When you hit 20, apply it and the one month free subscription to your account. Then you can get riding, unlock all the subscriber benefits (those never go away) and play anything for a month. Then you can decide what and where to buy content.

Turbine store is doing a special this week to unlock riding at 45 turbine points. (this is 75% off – normally 195tp).

You can get 45 points by doing deeds or quests in game – check your F2P account.

Going by how players used DDO’s store, the cheap (and best way) to play is to save up turbine points in game, wait for discount and buy them at a fraction of the usual cost. Or buy turbine points when they are offered with a bonus.

I’ve played around some on LOTRO, but can’t yet play it on my own Mac (I don’t have any super special stuff that allows me to play PC stuff on it yet). Made an account on a friend’s computer and have managed to get my Minstrel to level 7. I still don’t really know what I’m doing…I feel like such a noob. Once I get the software that’ll make my Mac pretend at being a PC, I may futz around more, but it’ll just be casual, for funsies. I’m too loyal to WoW.

If you’re on Landroval, drop me a line! My toons are listed in the “other games” thread on the TBDF.

If you spend some time killing mobs that are fairly easy for you to kill (humanoid or beast doesn’t matter, humanoid does have the chance of dropping neat things that you can auction), the junk they drop is more than sufficient for … well, everything, aha.